


Growing Pains

by SBG



Series: Little Problem [7]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-27
Updated: 2013-12-27
Packaged: 2018-01-06 07:58:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1104366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SBG/pseuds/SBG
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One doesn't go from big to small to big again without some ramifications.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Growing Pains

**Author's Note:**

  * For [annieke](https://archiveofourown.org/users/annieke/gifts).



> For [annieke](http://archiveofourown.org/users/annieke), wherever I may find her... Seriously, though, this wasn't the holiday gift I'd intended and I am sorry for that and sorry it's a couple of days late. I think you know why and I thank you for your patience!
> 
> Chronologically, this one goes close to the end of the series that will not die no matter how few read it. LOL.

In his experience, making out while in the water – the ocean specifically – wasn’t usually the most pleasant thing in the world. He’d had ample opportunities to test it out during the course of his life and with his background, he knew he was probably better equipped for it than most. Yet to his memory the cons outweighed the pros. The buoyancy of the environment made things interesting in a somewhat positive way. The waves and the bump and tangle of limbs as both parties treaded water, though, was another matter altogether. There was very little that he found appealing about the awkwardness and exertion, especially when he was with someone he cared about. Somehow, though, none of that awkwardness existed right now. Right now, there was only the solid feel of a muscular back and broad set of shoulders within his grasp. 

Steve knew he had started the kiss with desperate clumsiness born of frustration, fear and involuntary separation, but now it had settled into a slow sweetness he never got tired of. When they’d first gone beyond friendship, he had fully expected it to be contentious and full of the fire and aggravation that made Danny who he was. He’d expected them to be competitive at everything, in bed and out, and he’d also expected acrobatics. He got all of the above, but he also discovered that Danny had a side more tender than anyone ever would have guessed, moments now and again that spoke of gentle affection and love.

He had developed a certain, bittersweet fondness for the small boy who’d occupied his life for the past twenty-four hours, but now that he had _his_ Danny back in his arms, he couldn’t say he’d miss the child with anything like the same intensity he’d missed this man. The way Danny molded his body to Steve’s, the promptness with which he deftly eased their kiss into that gentle place went a long way to erase nearly every doubt little Danny’s escape attempts and physical attacks had put into his head about Danny’s feelings for him. Danny, who was obviously confused to find himself naked in the ocean yet understood Steve’s need even if he didn’t know where it had come from and didn’t hesitate to give it to him. 

Danny shivered and pulled away, his hands scrabbling at Steve’s shoulders to help keep himself afloat.

Steve leaned to chase the kiss, opened his eyes to find Danny smiling fondly and also a bit quizzically at him. Oh, he had missed every one of Danny’s laugh lines, that receding hair which looked even thinner wet and plastered to his head. He cupped his right hand on the side of Danny’s face, traced his thumb against stubble that seemed to defy the laws of magic. He laughed softly at the way Danny shivered again, laughed at how in a way this was Danny being baptized in the huge font he’d tried to escape into, laughed because he was exhausted from a whole day and night of chasing wee little Danny around and too relieved for words that he had survived.

“Not that I mind the kissing, never do,” Danny said, his voice rough and scratchy and _adult_ , “but you mind telling me what the hell is happening right now?”

“It’s a bit of a story,” Steve said. He kissed Danny, just a peck this time. “I’ll start with saying you have no idea how good it is to see you.”

“All of me, apparently.” Danny squinted down at himself, then eyed Steve’s T-shirt. He ran his hands along the sleeves, thumb brushed against the inked skin just below the hem. He frowned. “I seem to be experiencing some confusion here. Why am I the only one naked? And if we were doing happy fun times in the water, I really think I’d remember it.”

He was sure Danny would go on for an hour if given the opportunity. Even with the confusion making his eyes slightly cloudy, brows scrunched in a way that should be ridiculous, the sight of him made Steve so damned happy all he could do was kiss Danny one more time and revel in the way the maneuver was again met with no resistance. One of Danny’s hands – Steve couldn’t be bothered to figure out which – managed to make its way to his ass, as his clever tongue did magical things. When Danny tilted his hips slightly and gasped into Steve’s mouth at the friction, they almost submerged. Steve pulled back, kicked his legs and got one arm moving again. 

“Okay, I’ll remember that, at least, but you clothed, me naked and, I gotta admit, feeling like I’ve run a marathon. I need some answers here, Steve,” Danny said, picking up right where he’d left off. 

“Answers,” Steve said stupidly, really not sure how he was going to approach the cursed-into-toddlerhood thing yet.

“Yes, answers. First and foremost, I’ll go back to what the fuck?”

“I’ll tell you everything, I swear, but let’s get back to shore first.” Steve noticed a faint tremor still running through Danny, so it wasn’t from the kisses. “Can you make it on your own?”

“What am I, a two-year-old?” Danny glared. “Of course I can.”

Steve did a double-take, wondered if Danny had some memory of being smaller. He saw none of that in the brief moment before Danny began swimming to the beach. They’d drifted out a little further, but it wasn’t a great distance. Still, he lingered behind, intent on watching _his_ Danny’s broad shoulders, his arms sluice through the water. Danny, as it turned out, hadn’t lied about being able to swim well, though he’d yet to figure out why his partner was reluctant to get in the water most of the time. He thought maybe the lure of sex would get him out more often. He frowned when Danny stopped swimming, getting his feet in the sand and stopping when he was chest deep. Steve quickly caught up. 

“Danny?” he asked, noting Danny looked slightly haggard. 

“I am not going a step further.”

The stubborn set to the jaw was one Steve had long become familiar with, but now it also hearkened back to that tiny version of Danny who seemed to thrive on bucking anything Steve said. 

“What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong, Steven, is that I’m bare-assed naked and I just saw the glint of Mrs. Panabaker’s binoculars from her upstairs window. You know, the one that has a fantastic view of your not-so-private beach. She’s had enough of an eyeful of us making out like horny teenagers, I am not adding fuel to that fire by marching out of the water in the altogether.”

His shoulders sagged in relief that it wasn’t something bigger. It was logic Steve couldn’t argue. He also couldn’t resist turning a bright smile toward that window and their aged peeping thomasina as he goosed Danny just to make him jump, maybe give her something extra to see. He was feeling magnanimous today.

“Hey,” Danny said with a squeak, balance off kilter for a few seconds. 

“We’ve probably done enough to keep her going for a solid month,” Steve said. “Wait here, I’ll be right back with a towel.”

He left Danny muttering about nowhere to go even if he wanted to, and something about not understanding how he’d gotten out there naked in the first place, in broad daylight no less. Steve would have smiled, only he trudged by Danny’s abandoned size 2T black shorts, Batman T-shirt and discarded pull-ups. He snagged them, plus the flip-flops. The exhilaration of having Danny back to normal waned slightly at the tangible remnants of that tough little boy who had hated him. Or, maybe Lori was right – wee Danno had been lashing out at the one person he saw as an obstacle to getting what he wanted. He glanced back at Danny, standing in the water with his arms crossed, a scowl directed at an old lady with cataracts so bad she couldn’t really see much anyway. He shook his head and stared down at the rubber footwear that fit in the palm of his hand; one thing could be said about both versions of Danny and it was that it was better to be on his good side.

“Stop dawdling,” Danny shouted.

Steve flapped a hand at his partner, but started trotting to the house. He grabbed a towel from the laundry room and headed back out. He reconsidered, though, and veered instead to the phone he’d dropped after hanging up on Danny’s parents. He thumbed to Chin’s number and dialed him as he walked through the lanai doors. 

“Hi, Steve, what’s up? Need a hand with Danny?” Chin greeted, good humor evident in his tone. “What’s he done this time?”

“Haha, you guys are so funny. I won’t forget how you all abandoned me,” Steve said, without any real ill will. He couldn’t feel any negativity. Danny was back. He was back. “He’s back. Chin, Danny’s back to normal. Well, whatever you call normal for Danny, anyway.”

There was a slight pause.

“Just like that?”

“Yeah. One minute he was trying his greatest escape attempt yet, and the next he was Danny again.” Steve grinned, turned to wave the towel at Danny like he was a toreador. “If you wouldn’t mind let…”

His arm was high in the air, waving, when he realized something was wrong. Danny was hunched, chin dipped into the water, and his face was drawn. Steve could see it from a distance, the tension lines creasing Danny’s forehead, the pallor that hadn’t been there only minutes ago. His heart was in his throat and then it fell to his stomach as he watched Danny slip under the surface and not reappear right away. Worse, when he finally did his movements were fraught and uncoordinated. 

“Danny, _Danny_ ,” he yelled and dropped the phone.

For the second time that day, Steve ran to prevent disaster. He ran to save someone he loved. Danny should be fine; he should be able to keep his feet on solid ground. Except he didn’t. Steve moved with efficiency that belied his panic, counting the seconds since Danny had slipped into the water. Logically, he knew Danny would be fine, he was _right there_ , but there didn’t seem to be much room for logic in his brain at the moment. He reached his submerged partner and easily pulled him up. Danny was … shit, he was convulsing.

“No, no, no, no.” Not again. He was not going to watch Danny almost die like this again. 

Danny spluttered and coughed and shook so hard Steve almost lost hold of him. He dragged them both to the beach, careful of Danny’s lack of clothing and twitching limbs. He was startled to see Danny’s eyes crack open as Steve carted him to the grass before gently laying him down, and those eyes were filled with pain. Steve couldn’t understand what was happening, nor could he spare the time to sort it out.

“Hey, hey,” Steve said. “Danny, talk to me. Tell me what’s going on.”

“Dunno. Everything hurts.”

A Danny’s eyes closed again, Steve gave him a small shake, hated the moan the action provoked. “Stay with me, Danny.”

“Yeah, okay,” Danny said tightly, but he didn’t open his eyes again.

Steve ran his hands along Danny’s shaking body, alarmed to feel and see his muscles contracting violently. Whatever this was, the sudden onset was freaking him the shit out. He tried to massage a particularly ugly bunching of muscle in Danny’s calf, yanking his hands back when the moans turned to something more high-pitched and awful. 

“Jesus.” Steve was sick with momentary, atypical panic. There wasn’t a damn thing he could do to help, and that was the only thing he knew. “Hang on.”

A swath of bright blue cut in front of his face, blocked his view of Danny for a brief moment. Confused, Steve reeled back, realized it was a towel and saw Mrs. Panabaker leaning over Danny opposite to his own position. 

“I called an ambulance for your little…” Mrs. Panabaker trailed off, distressed but not so much so she couldn’t take time to ogle Danny’s cock before she draped the towel. “I guess not so little sweetheart – good for you, honey.”

Steve grunted and rearranged the towel so that it _actually_ covered Danny. He wasn’t ungrateful for the woman’s assistance, but the commentary was inappropriate at best.

“Ma’am.”

“I saw you boys out there when I got home from my bridge game, you know. Couldn’t help but notice. Anyway, I never had such a fright as when I saw him go under the water like that. What’s wrong with him?”

“I don’t know,” Steve said, glad that Mrs. Panabaker hadn’t seemed to have seen Danny when he was just a boy. The thought was fleeting, the more pressing matter of Danny’s continued pain-filled moans sucking up all of his energy. “Can you go out and guide the EMTs back here for me?”

“Of course, dear.”

Mrs. Panabaker looked a tad deflated to have to leave her post – later, Steve might contemplate that she had a crush on Danny – but scampered off to greet the men driving the vehicles he could already hear the faint sirens. An ambulance was probably overkill, and yet he was glad for it at the same time. She’d just rounded the corner of the house when he felt Danny shift a weak hand clutching his forearm. He looked down, appalled that Danny’s face was milky white and the lines of pan even deeper.

“Tell me she did not just size me up like I am a piece of meat,” Danny said, words halting and tense.

“I’ve never lied to you, Danny, and I’m not starting now. She took a gander.”

“Shiiit.”

Danny talking was good. Steve was still unsettled beyond what was reasonable for a man with his training and experience, but damn it, the last twenty-four hours had done a number on him. He kept a hand on Danny and rubbed the other down his face, wiped away the sea water that was making his eyes tear up. Danny had been talking after the sarin exposure as well, until he hadn’t been. 

“This is all your fault,” Danny muttered then let out a pitiful sound. “Now she’ll have an accurate picture when she undresses me with her eyes.”

“Stop trying to talk if all you’re going to do is bitch,” Steve said, trying to lighten the terror he was experiencing. 

Danny took his order with grace for a change, he did stop talking. Steve pursed his lips unhappily as his partner slipped into silence interrupted by sporadic mutterings too low to hear. 

There was nothing he’d like more than to hear Danny piss and moan in something other than agony. He wasn’t going to mention that it was Danny who’d gotten them into the water, albeit a slightly less rational version of himself. He wasn’t prepared to explain to Danny that his cultural insensitivity had gotten him cursed, though he would take that over explaining to Grace that he’d failed to protect her father from death by unnatural causes. This had to be related to Danny’s miniaturization, and if he weren’t one of the good guys, Onakea would be a _dead man_. Danny’s arm muscles rippled slightly under his touch, the spasms not easing at all. He didn’t know how long a human body could tolerate that specific kind of prolonged pain. This seemed to be endless.

“Just hang on for me, Danny.”

The EMTs arrived without fanfare, working quickly to extricate Steve from his position at Danny’s side, shooting rapidfire questions he had no real answers for. He didn’t know what was happening, and he couldn’t mention the curse without them calling another bus to cart him to the psych ward. They dosed Danny with something that didn’t seem to have any effect, given the increase in vocalized evidence of the hurt. Each grunt and gasp and groan cut Steve to the core. 

Time sped up in that way which seemed also horribly like slow motion, tugging him along in its wake. It was a blur to him, Danny’s pain, the efficiency and confusion of the medics, Mrs. Panabaker hovering at his side, _Danny_ crying out at every jostle. Dazedly, Steve followed, only half registering the ringing phone Mrs. Panabaker _(call me Edna, dear)_ pressed into his hand. He let the phone go to voicemail, focused his attention on holding Danny’s hand, one of the only safe parts of his body. He murmured over and over that everything was going to be okay.

As if saying so would make it happen.

H50H50H50

Steve stared at the doors Danny had been wheeled through nearly an hour ago, the same doors he’d gone through only six months before. It wasn’t a time Steve liked to think about, except for the fact the near death experience had served as a kick in the pants for him, a reminder he shouldn’t have needed about the fragility of life and taking chances while he had them. Nearly losing Danny, first to the sarin and then to Rachel, those were motivators of an extreme kind and they’d forced him to acknowledge that through the chaos of his life, professional and personal, Danny was a constant. Danny was the North Star, had been since they met.

A lippy, contrary North Star, but still. _His._

“Steve.”

Looking up, Steve saw Chin and Kono approaching with their faces set in scowls, Lori a few steps behind. After he’d been abandoned in the waiting area and time had resumed its normal pace, he’d checked his phone. It had been Chin, as frantic as Steve had ever heard him. He’d completely forgotten Chin had been on the phone with him, apologized for the worry and then briefed the other man on the situation. He’d also asked Chin to have a friendly chat with their asshole shaman.

“Any word on Danny?” Kono asked, the hardness in her eyes turning liquid with concern.

“Nothing yet,” Steve said. He’d been sitting there extrapolating the ways that probably wasn’t a good sign and trying not to read the exact same thought in Chin and Kono’s faces now. “What did that bastard say? Anything we can use?”

“Pleaded ignorance,” Chin said. His jaw muscles tightened. “Despite our best persuasive questions, he owned up to nothing.”

Onakea was a fucking menace and a liar. They all knew that was true, but Steve also knew that if he knew anything about what was happening to Danny, he’d be gloating and generally being a dick about it. He read some tension in his team’s expressions, Kono’s in particular, that Onakea probably had spouted off some bullshit.

“What’s your read?”

“Honestly, Steve, I don’t think he intentionally had anything to do with this. He was … pleased about Danny’s situation, but he didn’t rise to the bait and take credit.” Lori looked apologetic. “As much as we tried.”

“He also said he had no idea how to fix it,” Chin said. 

Steve stared at the floor, not surprised at the information but definitely not happy. All he had to do was close his eyes and he’d be back at his house with Danny in a world of hurt. If that was still happening, his partner would be reaching a breaking point soon. He turned his body toward the emergency doors, not sure he could keep from bursting through them for much longer, close to reaching his own breaking point.

“Of course he did,” Steve said. “That’s his go-to li–”

“Commander McGarrett?” 

Finally. Steve gave up all thoughts and frustrations with Onakea to concentrate on the doctor who’d taken Danny. Taken care of Danny. 

“Doc, tell me you have good news.”

“I have interesting news. Without having history…” Doctor French gave Steve a measured stare. “…it’s difficult to say what caused Detective Williams’ symptoms. In my fifteen years of practicing medicine, I have never seen a patient suffering from what was essentially full-body muscle spasms. With some bit of luck, he also described a deeper ache – almost like a child might claim to feel during a growth spurt.”

Oh, man. Danny had gone from adult to child and back to adult in a short span. Steve had told the doctor what he could, but hadn’t been able to figure out a way to mention the de-aging and re-aging. He’d had some idea Onakea was responsible and for some reason the obvious had eluded him. He darted a glance at the others, saw the realization in them as well. He had a brief thought about wee!Danny’s disposition, and wondered if there had been some ramifications going from big to small.

“Bottom line it for me. Were you able to help him?”

“Yes. Frankly, the stress of the pain was becoming a greater concern to me than the spasms themselves. His blood pressure was very high, as was his heart rate. Once we were able to treat the worst of his pain with hydration, heat, and high doses of ibuprofen and muscle relaxants, he began to settle.”

“He’s going to be okay?” Steve breathed. 

“I think so.” Doctor French smiled. “I do need to thank him for giving me the most interesting challenge I’ve had in years.”

“Can we see him?” Chin asked. 

“He’s sleeping right now, but you’re welcome to go back. In a few hours I can do better than a visit. I feel confident, despite the lack of information about causation that we’ve caught the cycle and ended it.” This was said with another look directed at Steve. “If we can be assured he’ll be under supervision and the instructions for his care are followed, I see no reason he can’t be released as soon as he’s awake.”

“I’ll take care of him,” Steve said. “You have my word.”

“Says the man who brought him in naked, wet and in dire condition.”

Great. Steve was going to have to do damage control. Mrs. Panabaker, the EMTs and now some of the hospital staff probably thought he’d sexed Danny into a full body muscle spasm. He cringed more, as he and Danny weren’t a secret but they also weren’t walking around holding hands and making smoochy faces. He scowled at the doctor, who held up his hands.

“I’m only giving you a hard time. It’s obvious you have a great deal of concern and affection for him. I would suggest someone take the time to gather him something more appropriate to wear in public than, well, the nothing he came in with or a hospital gown.”

The danger seemed to be over, which made Steve unbelievably happy. He felt a little weak-kneed with relief, if he were going to be honest. Most of all, the urge to go back and see for himself that Danny was actually all right didn’t dwindle with the good news. If anything, he might want to get back there even more.

“Will do,” Kono said. “Steve, you go on back. Chin, Lori and I can go get your car and clothes for Danny.”

“We’ll see him then,” Lori added, sounding a bit awkward for some reason.

Already following the doctor through the doors that had kept him and Danny separated two times too many, Steve called back, “That’d be great. Thanks, guys. For everything.”

Instinct should have had him move quickly to Danny’s bedside when Doctor French led him there and stepped aside, but instead Steve lingered back. In sleep, peaceful and without a trace of pain etched on his features, Danny looked young. Steve could see that younger version of Danny now.

“He really should be fine,” Doctor French said, misinterpreting his hesitation. 

Steve stepped forward, then, and took Danny’s lax hand in his. Almost instantly, Danny shifted on the bed, opened his eyes and gave him a dopey, bleary-eyed grin. 

"Hey, you," Danny said.

"Hey, yourself," Steve said.

And Steve had suspected this for a long time but now knew this was it. Danny was the whole cliché to him, richer or poorer, in sickness and health...

Toddler or adult.


End file.
